An Indiana teenager was charged Thursday as an adult in the shooting deaths of 4 family members and a pregnant woman on Sunday, Jan. 24.
The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office filed murder charges against Raymond Childs III on Thursday morning. He faces six counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of carrying a handgun without a license.
Childs is represented by the Marion County Public Defender’s office who entered a plea of not guilty for him at a hearing on Thursday.
Childs, an aspiring rapper, went on a shooting rampage hours after his father chastised him for sneaking out of the house to spend the night with his girlfriend without permission.
Police say Childs first shot his stepmother Kezzie Childs, 42, and his father, Raymond Child’s Jr., as they lay in their bed. Childs Jr. pleaded for his life: “I’m sorry Raymond, I love you.”
Childs then went from room to room shooting his 13-year-old sister Rita, his 18-year-old brother Elijah and Elijah’s pregnant girlfriend Kiara Hawkins, 19.
Kiara, who was 9 months pregnant, was transported to a hospital, where she and her unborn son were pronounced dead.
Kiara is pictured left and Kezzie is pictured right with her daughter Rita.
Another brother, Xavier Childs, 15, managed to flee the home during the shootings. Childs chased Xavier down and shot him twice as he begged for his life.
Xavier said he told Childs: “I can give you forty dollars, please don’t kill me.”
“He just looked at me and then he shot me on the leg. I fell. He shot me in my arm. And then he tried to shoot me in my head but missed, I guess,” Xavier told detectives.
Xavier limped to a neighbor’s home and collapsed on the front porch. The neighbor called 911 to report the shootings at 4 a.m.
Xavier identified his brother as the gunman when he was interviewed by police at a hospital.
Hours later, Childs was taken into custody at a relative’s home on Burkhart South Drive.
Xavier told police his brother used two different firearms – a 9-millimeter handgun and a mini draco semi-automatic pistol with an extended clip that fires rifle rounds.
The handgun was recovered at the scene. The semi-automatic pistol was found at the relative’s home. Police say the guns belonged to Childs’ father.
Pastor Kenneth Sullivan Jr, a friend of the family, told WTHR it’s possible that the aspiring rapper was “acting out” the things that he rapped about when he coldly shot his family.
“If you’re constantly feeding your mind negative things and destructive things, it won’t be long before you act upon those things,” Sullivan said.
In music videos posted on YouTube, Childs rapped about guns, money, drugs and killing people.
Childs will be transferred from a juvenile detention center to an adult jail to await trial. His next court date is set for April 21.
Indianapolis police Chief Randal Taylor called the killings the largest mass casualty shooting in the city in more than a decade.
